This blog is about my 8 year old son Joey and our journey into diagnosing his PDD-NOS and Epilepsy, learning from it and helping others, as well as being a great place to store all the information I gather along the way.

Schumer to propose "Avonte's Law" to protect autistic children

NEW YORK (WABC) --
It is something Michael Rosen, the Executive Director of Autism Speaks
has lost sleep about - his son Nicky is autistic and non-verbal. When
Nicky was little, he wandered. Rosen says he once found Nicky on a
neighbor's roof.

"Eventually we had to put locks on top of doors, and that's
how people with autism live," says Rosen, "you can't turn your back for
one second."

This was a tough thing for Vanessa Fontaine to
hear - her son, Avonte Oquendo also wandered. On Saturday, Fontaine
buried her 14-year-old.

On Sunday, still too upset to speak, Fontaine did throw her support behind an idea that could have saved her child.

Senator Charles Schumer calls it "Avonte's Law" - a high tech solution
to an age-old problem. The law uses tracking devices for kids like
Avonte.

"We know how to do it, we've seen it done - it works," says Senator Schumer.

After Avonte disappeared, volunteers spent months searching for the
teen, whose remains were just recently discovered along the banks of the
East River.

Schumer says under this new program, police would
track kids. It is modeled after a similar federal program that now
tracks those suffering with Alzheimer's.

"The only barrier is
the funding," adds Senator Schumer, "the devices themselves cost about
80 or 90 dollars, and then it costs only a few dollars a month to do the
monitoring."

As for the actual tracking device, it could be
worn as a wristband, clipped onto a child's belt loops, put in
shoelaces, or sown into clothing.

In Avonte's case, time was of
the essence. Experts say using these devices saves precious minutes,
and reduces the amount of time it takes to find a child by 95 percent.